13 Questions with Nancy Collins

This week on HA we are doing things a little different, our featured author for this week Nancy Collins will not be sharing a story with all us fans. Instead, we will be listening in on an exclusive interview with Nancy.

Professionally, Collins has been writing for 25 years and has “22 novels and short story collections published. Many of them are available both in print and as e-books.” Nancy also wanted to add, “I am in the process of making my back catalog available via e-books.”

Nancy has been “published in all formats: major traditional publishers (Penguin, Harper Collins, New American Library), small press publishers (White Wolf, Cemetery Dance Publications, Biting Dog Publications, Gauntlet Press, Overlook Connection Press), e-publishers (Premier Digital Publishing, Biting Dog Publications) and self-epublishing (Hopedale Press).  [She prefers] traditional major publishing, if for no other reasons than [getting] paid an advance for [her] work and [she doesn’t] have to be responsible for everything, thereby giving [her] time to actually write book. However, [she does] enjoy some aspects of self-publishing, such as designing the e-covers for [her] novels and short stories. That’s not to say [she’s[ good at it, mind you–just that [she enjoys] it.”

As I mentioned, Collins has several books published and some of her well noted novels include those in her Golgotham series. And the series is so popular that it has it’s own “city” website: Golgotham Online. Nancy explained that “Golgotham Online is dedicated to my Golgotham series of urban fantasy novels, set in New York City’s supernatural ghetto. It’s designed to resemble a Chamber of Commerce tourism website, like those for, say San Francisco’s Chinatown or New Orleans’ French Quarter. All the restaurants, bars and shops listed are those from the books. There are restaurant menus, a FAQ for visitors to the area, and the like available. I generated all the copy myself.”

Now all of you Collins fans out there…get ready for some interesting insight into the growth of the author’s lover. “I’ve always enjoy the horror genre’s ambiguity, as well as its ability to unnerve, not just horrify. I like stories and movies that make me think, and are not afraid to have an unhappy/unconventional ending…As a kid I always had a fondness for vampires and werewolves. They’re the essential building blocks of gothic horror, really. The biggest problem with werewolves, though, is that there are only a handful of decent movies about them: The Wolfman, The Curse of the Werewolf, The Howling, American Werewolf in London, The Company of Wolves, and Ginger Snaps. That’s about it. On the other hand, there are plenty of excellent vampire movies out there, ranging from the traditional, like Horror of Dracula and Nosferatu, to unconventional stuff like Near Dark, The Hamiltons, and Martin. ”

Nancy then shared another childhood “horror” story with me. “When I was a kid the Dr. Seuss story The Pale Green Pants scared the living daylights out of me.  It’s a story about a guy who sees an empty pair of pants walking down the street, and is so frightened he runs away, and the pants chase after him. Not only that, they stalk him. At the end of the story the guy realizes the pants just wants someone to wear them, and doesn’t mean any harm. But in my mind, the pants were trying to kill him. (Don’t ask me how I came up with that interpretation) I had nightmares about being chased by the empty pants, and became so upset that my mother finally had to sit me down and tell me that it was impossible for pants to run around without anyone inside them. Then I saw the original INVISIBLE MAN, where he runs down the street, stripping off his clothes–and lo and behold there’s a *pair of empty pants running around with no one inside them!* On TV!!! Therefore it *must* be true.  My mother cursed poor Claude Raines for weeks.”

Collins’ goals for the future are simple: To get all her back catalog (that includes 50+ short stories and novellas) formatted and available for sale in ebook format, while still being paid to write.

Be sure to be on the look out for Nancy Collins’ upcoming projects: “I’ve got the third book in the Golgotham series, Magic and Loss coming out in 2013 from Penguin/Roc. Premier Digital Publishing (PDP) will be releasing the revised and updated ebook edition of In The Blood, the direct sequel to Sunglasses After Dark, before the end of the year.  I’ve just signed a contract with Overlook Connection Press to release the Sonja Blue trilogy (Sunglasses After Dark, In The Blood and Paint It Black) in a series of limited collector’s edition hardback. I’m also working with artist Stan Shaw to release the Sunglasses After Dark Graphic Novel via IDW. I’ve also got original short stories appearing in the forthcoming Clockwork Fables and Exotic Gothic #5. I also expect to have a series of audiobooks, produced via ACX, available in time for Christmas 2012, to be made available via Audible.com, Amazon & iTunes. So far, the audiobooks under production include Sunglasses After Dark, The Thing From Lover’s Lane, Return to Hell House, Hell Come Sundown, Lynch and Walking Wolf.”
For more information on Nancy Collins, check out these websites!

http://www.golgothamonline.com/
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/nancy-a-collins/
http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/32665/Nancy_A_Collins/index.aspx
http://truesonjablue.blogspot.com/2012/08/sunglasses-after-dark-now-on-kobo.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FGobLc+%28True+Blue%29

Photo Credit: Tommy Boulden
Sunglasses After Dark/In The Blood/Paint It Black art credit: Sean Hartter